


The Misadventures of the Spectacular SpiderGem!

by Dodogama, TheBean170



Series: Spider-Gem! [1]
Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, F/F, Fluff, Holly Blue - Shocker, Lapis is tough but also dork, Mom Zircon, Peridot is dork, Professor Steven - Freeform, Slow Burn, The Spiderman au no one asked for, but not actually, together they form useless lesbian
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:42:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23957866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dodogama/pseuds/Dodogama, https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBean170/pseuds/TheBean170
Summary: Peridot Parker has a secret gift: She has the super abilities of a spider, given to her by a radioactive arachnid. She wants to do good for the great city of New York, but can she juggle school, family, her friendship, and a terrifying rise in superbaddies?It seems that the Parker Luck worms its way into every universe. Only this time, one can't be too sure how it'll affect our Spider-teen...
Relationships: Lapis Lazuli & Peridot (Steven Universe), Lapis Lazuli/Peridot (Steven Universe)
Series: Spider-Gem! [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1727206
Comments: 19
Kudos: 100





	1. A Day in the Life of Peridot Parker

_'There has to be a better way to get to school than this.'_

Peridot Parker looked up at the multiple buildings towering above her, filling up the skyline as cars buried the street next to her. The familiar smells of New York filled her nose as she walked up the sidewalk on an all too familiar path.

 _'I mean, car, subway, heck, I'll even take a Vespa over this. My calves are still giving me trouble from yesterday.'_ Her mind always tended to wander during the first half of her track to Midtown, her thoughts were constantly trying to find something to occupy itself with in some of the more boring moments of the day.

A particularly cold gust of wind blew by the blonde, making her hold her jacket closer to her chest, pulling her hoodie closer to her chest.

"Note to self, avoid cloddy wind magnets like this street while on patrol." She muttered to herself.

_'Hey… speaking of patrols, that's not such a bad idea.'_

Her eyes drifted back up to the skyline, this time with a different point of view. Her brain automatically plotted out a simple, yet enticing path across the concrete jungle, the exact points she would need to swing off of, the number of dives she would have to make to maintain her momentum, and what streets she would have to turn on and off of to make it to school in time.

However, as soon as the plan was completed, she chuckled and shook that idea out of her head. _‘What am I thinking? It would probably only take three days of me showing up to school like that before people would start getting suspicious why New York’s resident vigilante is showing up to Midtown High. And not everyone there has muscles for brains like Jasper.’_

 _‘Besides…’_ She thought as she came up to the halfway point, and subsequently her side-destination, _‘I still have one really good reason why I keep up this monotonous march each day.’_

The nerd stopped in front of a small, slightly rundown apartment complex, slipping into the back alley and walking underneath the fire escape. She looked back to the main street to make sure no one was really paying attention, then crouching and leaping onto the wall, sticking to it immediately. She crawled up the structure past two stories and towards the third floor fire escape, unsticking and landing on it. She tapped on the window right in front of it, covered with a curtain, and waited for a response.

In only a few minutes, a lithe girl with tan skin pulled back the curtain, smiling at Peridot and opening up the window. “Hey, you’re kinda late. Was getting scared you weren’t gonna show up.” She said, slipping out the window and onto the metal scaffolding. A black backpack was slung over her shoulders and a blue bomber jacket over her body.

“Excuse me, I was only five minutes late, thank you very much.” Peridot shot back, beginning down the ‘normal’ method of descending: the stairs.

“Yeah, five minutes late is scary when it comes to you.”

“If you must know, I slept through my alarm.”

The two high school students left the apartment building, resuming the path to the high school once again.

Peridot maintained a strict routine every weekday when it came to getting to class, and one of the most important parts (to her, personally) of that routine was stopping by and picking up her friend since childhood, Lapis Lazuli. She was the more laid back of the two and stuck up for the nerd whenever the passing bully or troublemaker tried to pick on her.The two knew each other so well, they often considered each other one half of the perfect combo.

“So, what kept Madame ‘Early to Bed’ up late enough to miss her alarm?” Lapis asked offhandedly, combing her hand through her dyed blue hair in an attempt to fix a stray curl. “Hope it wasn’t you trying to work ahead.”

“Eugh… Yes. Yes, that’s exactly what I was doing.”  
  
It was definitely not what she was doing last night. In reality, she had been on late night patrol after picking up police chatter that more organized bank heists were popping up last night. So, despite her curfew, she snuck out and gave the NYPD a... _hand_ in apprehension.

“Peri, I’ve been telling you to pace yourself. I don’t want you to repeat seventh grade and those ‘lovely’ late nights.” The bluenette chastised, though her harping came from a deep place of caring.

“It wasn’t like that, trust me.” _‘It_ _ **definitely**_ _wasn’t like that. I barely have enough time for the on-time homework.’_

“Mmhm, sure.” But even with doubt, Lapis still shot a smile towards her friend.

The two kept walking down the busy morning streets, now entering Midtown Manhattan and running into the occasional citizen ignorant of their surroundings, bumping into them as their eyes kept glued to their cell phones or towards their destination. As they turned onto the next street, they were met with their own destination: Midtown High School, a relatively well maintained school seemingly wedged in between two skyscrapers. Children were already walking up to the entrance or being dropped off by a mixture of cars and school busses.

Peridot and Lapis both marched up to the double doors at the entrance, pushing into the building along with the wave of other high-schoolers, mainly a mix of sophomores and juniors, of which Lapis and Peridot stuck out as seniors.

Peridot walked up to her own first period classroom, turning back to Lapis. “See you in a bit, Lazuli.” She says, holding out her hand.

  
“See you in a bit, Peri.” She responded, returning the gesture with a funny looking handshake.

Peridot watched for a moment as Lapis disappeared into the crowd before turning and walking into her own classroom. The desks were mainly filled up with students by this point, although no teacher could be spotted. The walls were lined with corny Literature posters, ones that even the most devoted English Professors might find lame, and the State curriculum as well as other ‘interesting’ facts were displayed on an automatic white board.

Peridot took a seat in the back of the classroom, and sighed as what used to be her favorite part of the day began, now wishing school would be over so she could do something she actually considered worthwhile.

The final school bell rang, and a frizzy haired teacher with glasses that put Peridot’s to shame walked in. “Goooood morning, class!”

Peridot buried her head in her hands. She could blow through any other homework her teacher assigned when she got home from her _other_ activities. Right now, she just wanted to sleep off the exertion and muscle pain she gained from last night.

~🕷️~

  
Once lunch period hit, both Peridot and Lapis snuck out from the campus and walked across the street to a nearby deli, something the two had done so many times they were practically experts in sneaking past the hallway monitors.

Lapis ordered a pretty hefty sandwich, taking it over to an interior table and sitting down next to her friend, She split the meal down the middle, passing a half to Peridot and biting into the other half herself.

While Lapis ate her sandwich at a relatively normal pace, Peridot practically _tore_ into her sandwich, scarfing it done completely while Lapis wrapped hers up for later.

“Jeez, Peri! What, did you not eat anything last night?” The bluenette was half concerned, her friend’s eating habits were seemingly out of control as of recent, which wasn’t far off from the truth.

Peridot gulped down the last of her sandwich, staring somewhat embarrassed at the table. “Eh heh, sorry. Guess I forgot breakfast this morning.”

That, however, wasn’t the truth. She had definitely eaten breakfast that morning, but it just felt like she hadn’t. Her body was burning so many calories as of recent that she took any sort of fuel for the tank she could get.

“Well… I’ll remind you next time. And if you want, I can whip up something small for you tomorrow morning, okay?”

_‘Oh, that does sound quite appetizing. Still, I don’t want to put the burden on Lapis, she does so much for me already. I’ll just buy some of those calorie bars tomorrow.’_

“Oh, you don’t have to do that Lapis. I’ll just set myself a reminder to pick something up before leaving tomorrow.” Peridot reassured.

“Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

~🕷️~

Peridot struggled to focus up on the AP Biology lesson in front of her. It was her last class of her day, and also her somewhat-favorite, so at the very least she wanted to keep concentrated on the teacher speaking in front of her.

Professor Universe kept pointing to diagrams and Latin words on the board, but her eyes kept drifting towards the clock. It was only a few more minutes before classes let out. A few more minutes, and sweet, sweet freedom would be hers.

Before, she would have dreaded the end of classes, the end of the time she could spend at the place where she felt she could excel at the most. But now, she felt restricted, tied down to a place where she couldn’t make much of a difference to anything.

The clock’s ticking felt like a pounding of drums to her senses, lulling her focus further away from her teacher and towards the time keeper.

Finally, like beautiful hymns, the school bell rang out, leading to all the students in the class to quickly pack up their things and make their way to the door, with Peridot seemingly leading the charge as she stuffed everything haphazardly into her backpack and leaping up from her chair. However, before she could make it out the door, a voice called out to her.

“Ms. Parker, could I have a word?” Professor Universe asked, sitting down at his desk.

Peridot let out a hiss under her breath, then turned back around to face her teacher. “Yes, Professor Universe, what can I do for you?”

“Peridot, I wanted to talk to you about your grades,” The teacher began, folding his left arm over his right arm prosthesis on the desk, “I don’t know what’s been going on with you recently, but you’ve been showing academic decline, and it's not just in my class. I’ve been talking with all your teachers as of recent, they’ve been describing you as distracted… distant. Is there something you want to talk about?”

Peridot sighed, her biology teacher was the only one she thought genuinely cared about her well-being. “It’s nothing, Professor Universe. I’m fine, just… busy, with a side project.”

“Look, Peridot, I’m not denying your genius, your research paper on genetic splicing was genius, but that doesn’t mean you can just blow off school for side projects. I don’t want to put down your interests, they’re an important part of you, but you have to understand that there are some things that take precedence in your life.”

_‘More than you know, Mr. Universe.’_

“Will you just take that into consideration, Ms. Parker?”

“Of course, Professor. May I leave now?”

“You may, Peridot.”

And in a blur, she left the classroom, rushing towards the end of the hallway. Finally free from the restrictive walls of Midtown High, she was practically skipping to the end of the hallway, hoping to spot Lapis somewhere in the mass of children to check if she was still inside, or outside waiting for her.

However, as she turned a corner in the hallway, she ran face first into what could only be described as a wall of muscles and cockiness. Peridot groaned, catching her glasses before they fell off her face, before looking up to see who she had bumped into.

Then, she groaned at the sight of another obstacle in her path out of her educational prison.

Jasper, lumbering over the nerd (despite her newly gained height) in a sports jacket, crossed her arms and sneered downwards. “Aw, runt, did I get in your way? Have somewhere to be?” She taunted.

“Jasper, please move.” Peridot complained, fruitlessly trying to get past the bully. Every time she tried to move around the meathead, she moved right in front of the blonde. It didn’t help that her pack of cronies were blocking the other ways past the jockey, chuckling at the futile attempt for the short ‘David’ to get past her ‘Goliath.’

“Aw, which way? This way? Or this way?” She consistently taunted the nerd as she got in every which way she tried to get past her.

It was in moments like these that Peridot wished she could use her… abilities, if only a little. How easy it would’ve been to jump past or even over Jasper, or pick up the quarterback with one hand and simply toss her out of her way.

But, almost as soon as those thoughts entered, the very _very_ strong reason for not using said abilities overtook her mind.

And so, Peridot stopped and stood there, waiting for Jasper to get bored with her. It seemed, however, she did not have the brain capacity to do so. “Aw, c’mon runt, let me through! I just wanna get past you! This is borderline harassment, you know?” Jasper said, faking a hurt tone as she pretended to be halted by the short blonde.

Peridot still stood there, practicing self constraint to simply jump out a window to get past the gaggle of football players. Yet, before that little bit of restraint could leave her, someone spoke up from behind Jasper.

“Yo, Stripes, you mind letting my friend through?”

Peridot smiled and Jasper frowned as her whole clique turned around to see Lapis standing in the hallway, her arms crossed over her chest and her foot tapping against the vinyl floor.

However, Jasper quickly put on another smirk as she approached Lapis, getting close enough to where her shadow loomed over her. “Oh yeah? Gonna make me?”

“Nah, I don’t have too.”

“Thanks for letting me through Jasper. See you tomorrow?” Peridot said as she slipped by the hole the jock left from turning towards the blue dyed distraction. Both she and her tan friend left down the hallway, while Jasper leapt from dumbfounded to frustrated that her target for bullying had gotten away.

The duo finally left through the front entrance of the school, Peridot taking in a deep breath of relief at finally being free. “Thanks for coming to my rescue, Lazuli. That clod thinks it's always so funny to pick on me.”

“If she put as much effort into her supposed ‘jokes’ as she does her football skills, she might actually make me use my brain to trick her.” Lapis said, giggling. “But… Yeah, already told you I’d stick up for you.”

Peridot’s smile grew wider. Despite not being intimidating in the slightest by the jock and knowing she could handle it on her own if she ever had to, knowing Lapis cared so much to look out for her made her feel so proud to call her a friend.

“So, you heading home, or you wanna stop by my place? I… I could make some pizza bites.” The bluenette said, almost as if she was trying to buy some hangout time.

“I…” Peridot almost instinctively agreed to head back with Lapis, after all it _had_ been quite a while since they had hung out, when a wave of shock hit all students exiting the building.

  
On the street opposite the one in front of the school, a dark brown corvette sped down the road, followed quickly by two police cars with sirens blaring. Peridot could already feel herself yearning to swing into action.

“Woah, what on earth wa-”

“SorryLapisgottaheadhomeaunt’swaitingseeya!” Peridot quickly blurted out as she ran the… opposite direction of her home.

The blonde slipped into an alleyway, quickly pulling out her phone and sending a text to her caretaker.

**_PDot: Sorry auntie, have chem club today. Won’t be home till later. Love you._ **

With that, Peridot unzipped her backpack, stuffed her phone inside, and smiled as she pulled out her… _club uniform._


	2. A Day in the Life of the Spider-Gem

Peridot moved with precision and efficiency, saving as much time as she could in the suit up process so she could move into action.

After striping off her shirt and pants and stuffing them into her backpack, she quickly put on the first part of the uniform: an old green and black acrobat's uniform she had purchased from a thrift store, modified to suit her needs. She adjusted it properly before grabbing the second item, a pair of black work pants and green tennis shoes, obtained after accidentally missing a webshot and suffering the _worst road rash imaginable._

As the penultimate item, she pulled out her aunt’s old Midtown varsity jacket (color scheme matching her outfit), and slipped it over her upper body. Why the jacket, you may ask?   
  


In her opinion, it was the coolest addition to her costume.

Finally, Peridot removed her glasses (only for posterity, the things didn't even have lenses), and pulled out the crown jewel of her outfit: a green mask the same colour tone as the green of her acrobat outfit, slipping it over her face. She flipped her hood over her head, and stood up straight.

 _‘Everything seems snug and secure…’_ She mentally checked off, examining her outfit. After everything was to her satisfaction, she quickly grabbed her backpack and zipped it up. She thwipped out a web into the side of the building enclosing the alley, pulling herself upward. Before she left the passage, she threw her backpack at a wall, webbing it in place and racing off into the action.

She maneuvered herself down the busy New York Streets, weaving in and out of traffic as she gained more and more momentum. She could still clearly see the speeding police cruisers, meaning she still had time to catch up. She webbed herself closer to one of the buildings, running across it as if gravity had shifted to the side, using another web against a raincatcher to propel herself farther ahead.

Closer and closer, she approached the car chase, finally getting a clear view of the red corvette and the criminal inside it. She shot out another strand of web onto the roof of the car, pulling herself from the air onto the vehicle.

“What the?!” She heard the criminal call out from inside. She snickered as she crawled over to the side of the driver door, knocking on the window to get their attention.

The criminal, a dingy looking man with dirt in his hair, looked between the window and the road. Peridot subconsciously checked the road, making sure no pedestrians or other cars were in danger. She wanted to toy with the crook, but not if someone else would pay for it.

The man finally rolled the window down, grabbing a gun and pointing it at the superhero.

Peridot took care of the quickly, yanking the pistol out of his hand with almost no strength applied and flinging it out of the way. “Hello, sir, I’m with the NYPD, traffic division. I noticed you sped through a school zone a few blocks back, and I’m gonna have to ask you to pull over.” She joked.

“My gun! That’s my property, you creep!” The crook yelled.

“Yes, and I’m assuming this car isn’t, judging by the lack of anything else in here and, you know, the cops.”

Without hesitation, she yanked the criminal out the window and threw him towards a lamp post, taking pride in the scream that escaped his mouth. Before he hit the ground, she webbed his legs to the pole and stuck him in place. Jumping off the roof and in front of the car, she used more of her spider-strength to completely stop the car in its tracks, panting slightly after the ordeal.

Turning back around, Peridot swung over to the post where the criminal was hanging, perching herself on the lamp part.

“Thank you for cooperating with the traffic authorities, clod. Your city appreciates you!” She taunted down.

“W-Who are you?!” He exclaimed, trying to reach up to his legs to free himself.

“Why, I’m your friendly neighborhood Spider-Gem! Putting presumable carjackers, like yourself, out business!”

“Spider… Gem?”

“Trademark pending.”

Her ears picked up the sound of cop cars skidding to a halt behind her. “Well, I’ll let the boys in blue take it from here.” She leapt forward, turning slightly before she left. “Oh! I almost forgot…”

She webbed the criminal’s hands to his chest and his mouth closed.

“Here’s your ticket!”

With a dorky laugh, the vigilante swung away from the crime scene, letting the officers take it from there as she swung above the roofs of the buildings.

“First crime of the day! Boy, was he lucky that I wasn’t warmed up!”

Peridot swung through the city, flinging herself over a building and diving downwards towards the road, pulling herself upward at the last possible second to gain speed.

She breathed deep, enjoying the cool air blowing past her and the feeling of weightlessness in her stomach in those few seconds where she was attached to nothing. The superhero kept on traversing the city, looking for any sign of trouble or crime brewing. She soon spotted a suspicious looking, unmarked vehicle parked right outside a small family-owned bakery.

She swung down to the front, spotting through the window three guys dressed in thuggish clothing, with guns held in their hands below their waists. The cashier, an elderly woman wearing an apron, looked pale in the face and terrified of the hooligans.

The nerd scouted out the situation, knowing that if she just barged into the store, the woman could potentially get shot. It was then she noticed an air vent in the side of the building, guessing that it more than likely gave her a way to get the jump on the criminals and hopefully avoid a messy end.

She crawled up the side of the building, pulling open the grate on the vent and crawling inside. As she suspected, she gained a bird’s eye view over the main area of the bakery.

“Listen, May, we ain’t gonna hurt you. But if that ‘insurance money’ doesn’t get funded over to the Magia, well… _accidents_ tend to happen.” The supposed leader of the trio threatened.

“P-Please, I can’t afford this anymore! My wife, she’s in the hospital for-” The lady tried to beg, but the leader just chuckled.

“Don’t worry, we’ll send flowers.”

“Don’t bother, your prison bail won’t leave you the change for a petal.” Peridot snarked, revealing herself from the ceiling. In one quick movement, she began wrapping all the criminals in a large web, running across the walls to keep the encirclement going. Once the thugs were immobile, she quickly yanked the guns out of their hands and webbed them to the floor. Walking over with an air of cockiness, she used her foot to lightly tap the pseudo-cocoon so they fell over with an ‘umph’.

“Are you alright, Ma’am?” The superhero asked.

“Oh thank you, thank you!” The elderly lady exclaimed, moving from behind the counter to quickly shake her savior’s hand, “You’re that Bug-Lady they keep talking about in the news, right?”

“Actually, my name’s th-”  
  


“Oh, you deserve a reward for such a nice job! I have something just for you!”

The lady speed-walked back around the counter where all her pastries were, then pulled out a small chocolate chip cookie and held it out for the hero to take. “If it wasn’t for you, those guys would’ve taken all I had in here, and that’s my life savings!”

Peridot hesitated at first, but then took the cookie from the lady’s hand. “Thank you ma’am, but, I was just making sure you were alright. No reward necessary.”

“And that’s exactly why you deserve it! Now, run along Bug-Lady,” The baker reassured, pushing her out of the store, “I have to clean up so I can reopen!”

“It’s Spider… Ah, forget it.” Peridot pulled up the bottom of her mask just above her mouth and took a bite out of the cookie, making a noise of approval while chewing. “Stars, that’s a darned good cookie!”

Wrapping the rest in the little paper it came with, she stuffed the cookie in her pocket for later. Spotting an incoming bus, she crouched downwards in preparation, leaping up as it passed and attaching to its side. She nodded and waved to the people inside the bus, using the vehicle as a way to rest and spot anything fishy in the streets she passed. However, when she looked back up front, her eyes went wide as she spotted a familiar splotch of blue hair on the crosswalk…

  
… Walking into oncoming traffic with seemingly no outside awareness.

~🕷️~

“Pizza rolls… What are you, seven?” Lapis muttered angrily to herself as she marched down the street, her hand a tight grip on her backpack.

She was taking a detour away from her home to hopefully clear her head, her thoughts chastising her for being such a klutz in her attempt to get her friend to come over. She marched along the sidewalk, aiming for one of her old hangout spots that she used to cool down in.

_‘And it seemed like she was really gonna accept this time. We’ve been so distant recently. Too distant. I just wish things could go back to when they were simpler, like freshman year. We’d hang out at my place every day until her aunts had to march over and pick her up themselves!’_

Lapis chuckled at that fond memory, her self-deprecating thoughts leaving her for a moment as she reminisced on the past.

_‘The past month has just been so… hectic. For both me and her. I understand she might be going through some stuff but, she knows she can talk to me about it, if something’s bothering her. She helped me with my junk, why can’t she let me help with hers?’_

Those self deprecating thoughts came back in full force after that, weighing on the poor girl like the feeling of uselessness occupying her heart.

She turned onto the crosswalk across the street, not even bothering to check whether or not any cars were coming her way.

_‘I just wish that I could find out more about her, the side she’s hiding from me. Then maybe I could help her, maybe I could just-’_

Before she could finish that thought, a loud horn blared from her left side, causing her to look up from her feet and stare in terror as a bus drove straight towards her. It tried in vain to pump the brakes, but the bluenette froze in fear as it got closer and closer. She saw her life pass before her eyes, noting a distinct amount of green and yellow in it, and squeezed them shut to brace for impact

Then, ripping a scream from her own throat, the girl was hoisted straight into the air and hauled over to the other side of the road by an unseen guardian.

She stood still for a moment after, eyes still closed tight and heart pumping in her ears, barely able to come to terms that she was most _definitely_ dead, and that was some sort of angel or or deity hoisting her away into the great graduation hall in the sky. However, she was brought back down to reality by a somewhat muffled voice.

“-Kay? La- Uh, lady, are you okay?” The voice kept calling out to her, hands shaking her shoulders back and forth.

Lapis finally cracked open her eyes to see she was still very much alive, and still somewhere in NYC, though where exactly her brain wouldn’t supply her, as it was currently drowning in stress.

Then, she finally focused on the muffled voice.

The person speaking to her was dressed in a mismatch of clothing, using a green-black-white pallet, and wearing a strange mask over her head. Her toned arms kept trying to revive the poor girl from her near death experience.

Toned…

Wow, those arms were toned. The person speaking to her was quite… muscular, in Lapis’s opinion. In fact, the stranger herself had quite the cute voice, in an adorkable sort of way.

_‘Pull it together, Lapis, stop checking the cute hero out.’_

“Ma’am, are you okay? Please say something!” The strange hero begged again.

Lapis finally recognized who was speaking to her.

“Y-You.. Save, you…” She sputtered, trying to find the words hidden on her lips, “Y-Y-You’re that new superhero.”

“Uh, k-kinda. Look, are you alright, ma’am?”

“F-Fine. You… saved me.”

“Uh… That I did. Look, please watch out next time when crossing the street, okay? I’d hate to see you get hurt over something like that.”

And she cared that much about her? Well, she probably has to, she _was_ a superhero. Kind, caring, selfless…

“Stay safe, Lap- Lady! Lady.”

And with that, _her_ hero jumped up into the air, throwing out some strange wire from her wrist and swinging off into the distance, no doubt to go save some other poor soul or stop another crime.

In theory, that served as a good enough distraction for the events earlier that day, but now Lapis had a new string of thoughts that were whirling through her head, and they were all centered around that masked vigilante that swept her off her feet and saved her life.


	3. Taco Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's written exclusively by Dodogama. Enjoy!

“Well, that last one sucked…”  
  


Peridot held her cheek, she could feel the bruise forming under her mask and cursed when her next swing yanked a bit too hard at her arm. The sun was setting and so was the time to get home impending; Last time she got home late, her aunt had given her an earful.

Though by the looks of it, another one was to happen seeing as dusk had already fallen upon the Manhattan skyline. This wouldn’t have happened if the muggers she’d just fought didn’t look like they chugged protein drinks and pulled trains in their spare time.

This left her with a sore body and very visible bruises.

As she rounded a building she quickly swung into an alleyway that bordered her own apartment. Latching onto the wall, she checked if anyone could see her, deeming no passersby could be seen from the entrance of the alley and noticing all the windows had curtains covering them from peering eyes.

She slowly climbed down, using the microscopic needle-like hooks that grew from her fingertips when she got her powers. The short teenager landed with a dull thump onto the slightly damp concrete floor of the alleyway.

She checked her surroundings once more, using her advanced hearing to listen to any footsteps but only got the distant sounds of cars and the buzz and hum of the nighttime Manhattan.

The costumed hero ducked behind a trash bin and grabbed her backpack from her shoulders. Earlier - after she saved Lapis - she retrieved it, if only to bring it here for when she was done superhero-ing. A gloved hand reached into the well-loved pack and extracted the clothing she’d worn that day.

With much care and precaution as to not harm her aches and pains, Peridot successfully changed into her long sleeved shirt and slightly-torn-but-still-wearable jeans. Though, when changing, she noticed all the bruises along her pale body apart from her face.

As she stuffed her suit back into the bag, her phone buzzed; it was her aunt.

The little icon of a small bluebird popped up, the worried text consisting of **_“_** ** _Where are you, you should’ve been home an hour ago, are you OK? Do you need help?_** ** _”_** and so on filled a corner of the nerd’s screen.

She smiled, although her aunt could be a bit, overbearing, she had good intentions and she loved the older woman dearly. Choosing a short reply, the blonde typed an **_“_** ** _I ’m okay, I’m home rn._** ** _”_** as she exited the alley.

When she turned her screen, she saw the damage done to her freckled face, a dark purple bruise covering almost the entirety of her lower right jaw, another smaller one on her temple though a small cut accompanied it.

She sighed, pocketing her device, she wouldn’t be able to cover those up quick enough for her aunt not to notice. She placed the black frames of her gutted glasses onto her nose. When she’d gotten her powers her eyes were miraculously fixed and she could see better than ever. So, to avoid headaches, she removed the lens.

She traversed the concrete pathway to her apartment door and used the bronze key to enter the small building. She was met with a tiny lobby that couldn’t even fit four people and carpeted staircase, turning and ascending the spiraling flight until she reached the fourth floor, apartment seven.

A key of a more silver tone was extracted from the dark denim of her jeans as she unlocked her door. The first thing she was hit with was the delicious smell of tacos, Peridot heard her stomach grumble at the aroma and she sighed dreamily, tacos were her favorite.

She shut the door behind her and made her way towards their tiny kitchen “Hey auntie, I’m home!” She called.

The head of the now-retired and perpetually disheveled Bleu Zircon-Parker popped out from around the wall, her blue-tinted glasses barely hanging off her nose and dark graying hair in a frizzy mess. She looked both shocked and relieved. “There you are! Oh, I was wondering where-” she cut herself off, squinting.

“Peridot!” Peridot stopped, eyes wide, as her aunt hurried towards her, grabbing the shorter’s face in both hands and tilting it from side to side “What happened?! Are you okay?! Was it Jasper again? Oh, Peri, you know what I said about her! You need to tell a teacher if she ever touches you!”

The short teen nudged away her aunts’ hands “I’m fine, I’m fine Auntie, We just had a little… scuffle, nothing to get too worried about.” That was a lie. One, it wasn’t even Jasper, and two, it was way more than “just a scuffle”.

Bleu bit her lip, she knew Peridot was lying, she’d been doing so more recently, but she also knew that Peridot was also quite stubborn. So, even if she pushed the issue, nothing would get solved and would more likely result in the younger locking herself away in her room for the night.

The frayed woman sighed “Oh, alright, here-” she grabbed Peridots’ hands “-let’s get you cleaned up.” She led her into their kitchen, sitting the pale girl down before she excused herself to hurry into the bathroom to gather their medical supplies.

Peridot didn’t show it, but she let out a quiet breath of relief at finally being able to rest, albeit on an uncomfortable wooden chair. She slipped off her worn backpack and slid it behind her chair, she couldn’t risk her aunt seeing her suit.

When Bleu finally returned, she carried a small handful of bandages and an unforgettable brown bottle of hydrogen peroxide. She grabbed a napkin and poured some of the clear liquid onto it before kneeling down to Peridot’s level.

She sighed, dabbing the cloth onto Peridots cut who flinched back before stilling herself “I’m really worried about you sweetie… You’ve been coming home late and always with bruises and-” she exhaled, “Oh Peri, just know that if anything is wrong, you can tell me, I trust you, okay?”

Peridot nodded, “I promise” she reassured, though she couldn’t quite meet the other’s eyes. It pained her to lie to Bleu, who had taken care of and loved her since what felt like forever. But, if she told her the truth, then who knows what’ll happen. She may not be able to continue being the great and lovable Spider-Gem!

Bleu smiled, though it held a more melancholy feel to it “Okay, just please, be careful.” Peridot only nodded in response as a bandage was placed onto her forehead.

“You know, I’m pretty sure the tacos are burning…” Bleu’s eyes widened, she quickly jumped up and rushed over to the oven. “Oh gosh, I forgot! I hope nothing got burnt…” the smell of somewhat burnt taco meat wafted through the air.

Peridot smiled at the mildly futile attempts at salvaging their meal. She stood up, lamenting the soreness she had, and went to help her aunt. After a few minutes passed, their small circular table was set and the two women sat across from each other.

“So, other than getting caught in a ‘scuffle’-” Bleu lifted her hands and made air quotations to emphasize, Peridot only rolling her eyes and taking another bite of her taco in response, “-how was my favourite niece’s day?”

Peridot smiled, happy that the anxious behaviour her aunt had been portraying earlier was somewhat calmed. “I’m your _only_ niece, that doesn’t count. But otherwise, it was good. Lapis and I hung out for a bit and school was the same as always.”

The brunette swallowed her food. “Well, learn anything new at least?”

“Nothing that I already didn’t know,” Peridot smirked.

“Oh, that’s right-” she began, sarcastically too, “-how could I forget my young, talented niece is a modern genius, I bet she already learned the syllabus…” She snickered as Peridot narrowed her eyes.

“I, for your information, haven’t learned the syllabus… yet,” The two watched each other before they simultaneously burst out into laughter.

They finished their food and Bleu ushered Peridot to bed, claiming that if she ever plans on making it through high school, she should get some rest. Peridot, of course, obliged, feeling the aching in her bones and her eyelids droop.

She said her goodnights to her aunt, who was now sitting on their scraggly couch watching their run down television they got off Craigslist, before the short blonde padded off to her bedroom.

Inside she discarded her bag, the room was… messy, but organized! In a way. Posters of various games and TV shows lined the walls of the tiny room. Various different contraptions and tiny machines littered the floor, each in different states of being taken apart. They were all Peridot’s (failed) attempts at making life easier, one even vaguely resembling a toaster.

On a small shelf, a couple of figurines from different games in varied states of quality stood proud, in truth, Peridot had gotten them from Lapis, the other girl had admitted to finding them in thrift stores and she was sorry for the quality, but Peridot insisted that she loved them, and she was right.

At the foot of her single twin bed was a cluttered desk, mostly covered in mechanical parts and tools. The most prominent being the multiple devices looking like old, broken, and dismantled prototypes of the very same web slingers that Spider-Gem used, Peridot mentally slapped herself for not putting them away lest her aunt finds them.

She hurried over and stored them in the desks drawer, she caught a glimpse of one of the stolen school beakers full of her homemade web fluid. She really needed to hide them better, but for now, her drawer would have to do. Closing it, she got undressed and ready for bed.

Beneath the clearance aisle sheets, the nerd thought back on her day and all it pertained. She’d saved Lapis, _Spider-Gem saved Lapis,_ her best friend!

It almost made her giddy, if not for the unwanted thought of _‘What would’ve happened if she weren’t there?’_

_‘What would’ve happened?’_ Would she be in some comatose state? Would she have been sent to the hospital only to come back without a limb? And those were only best-case scenarios, she wouldn’t even dare think of what it would be like if she found out Lapis had-

Peridot took a deep breath and exhaled, _‘don’t think of how everything could’ve gone bad, just be happy you were there.’_ She thought back to how Lapis had seemed so dazed when she’d saved the bluenette, also thinking back to the smile that graced her face as she swung away.

She was happy, happy beyond belief that she _did_ that, that she proved - albeit anonymously - that she could be strong and helpful without her best friend swooping in to come and save her. It was almost liberating in a way.

Peridot closed her eyes, letting the calming tendrils of sleep succumb her, a large smile gracing her lips and excitement for the day to come within.


	4. Shocking Twist

“Do do do, do do do…” Peridot hummed to herself as she swung over the city. It was Saturday morning, she had a hearty breakfast in her system, and there was a cool breeze in the air. Perfect way to start her weekend, in her opinion.

So far, there hadn’t been a single peep from the criminal underbelly, the city itself seeming relatively calm and peaceful. But that didn’t stop Peridot from swinging through the city, using the free time as practice for her movements and pacing. She swung high enough to grace over the building, but with just enough restraint to practically step on top of it from her arch.

Walking to the edge of the building, she lowered herself down and dangled her legs off the structure, pulling out her phone and unlocking it. She opened up an app she had downloaded recently, a police scanner that allowed her to tap into the nearby frequencies the NYPD used. She sat there for quite a while, waiting for any sign of activity but receiving none. It was almost three hours since she sat down before something happened.

But it had nothing to do with the police.

A small notification appeared on her phone, distracting Peridot from her current task of finishing up her AP Bio homework, which she had brought with her knowing that she’d more than likely would have time to kill. She picked up her phone, closing out the tunner app and opening up her messages.

**_LL: Hey, busy today?_ **

**_LL: Wondering if… Maybe, you’d like to come over?_ **

**_LL: Struggling with some of that math homework, tbh._ **

**_LL: Could use your dork brain :)_ **

Peridot smiled at that last one, knowing that term wasn’t meant as an insult, but rather was just the kind of nicknames Lapis would use. Her mind then drifted back to the exact offer she was making to her: Time to spend with her closest friend. For some reason, that was more exciting than when she got that offer before, like it was some sort of honor to get to visit her friend.

_‘Perhaps… It’s because I saved Lapis the other day? That’s the only possible explanation I could think of._ ’ She pondered, her fingers hovering over the digital keypad. _‘Some sort of… pseudo Rescuer Syndrome?’_ Peridot shook her head as if she just sucked on the world’s most sour lemon. _‘Ew, Parker, nonono. She’s your friend, stop that.’_

The blonde started to type out a message in response. _‘Pfft, you’re overthinking things. It’s probably because you haven’t hung out in a while. Just… Take her up on the offer. It’s not like there’s anything going on right no-’_

Almost comically, a group of squad cars raced down the street right beneath where Peridot was staked out. She quickly changed to her police scanner app, and tuned back in.

**_“All units, we have a 10-65 in progress at the Penny Savings Bank of New York. I repeat, all units, please respond, we have a 10-65 in progress at the Penny Savings Bank of New York.” The station crackled off._ **

Peridot sighed, turning back to her messaging app.

**_PDot: Sorry Lapis, I have chores this morning._ **

She almost put her phone away before sending another message with haste.

**_PDot: But, I'll send you a message when I’m done. Pretty sure they won’t last all day._ **

And with that, the hero raced off in pursuit of the bank robbery. Swinging underneath a subway bridge, and pulling herself in between some more crowded buildings, she got closer and closer to the crime scene and saw more and more cop cars racing towards the scene.

She got low enough to one of the cars and waved to them. “Race you there, fellas?”

The cop seemed to start to say something, but Peridot didn’t hear, as she was already blocks ahead.

She got to the bank in question, a large and neoclassical structure, with its title written in big bold golden letters on the front. The doors had been seemingly blown off their hinges and shouting could be heard from inside. Seemingly, Peridot had gotten there before any of the other officers.

She landed at the front entrance and rushed inside.

The interior of the bank was even more boastful and illustrious than the outside, where the architect could probably be accused of having a thing for golden highlights. A large circle of pillars stood in the middle, and many bank teller stations lined the walls of the circular epicenter. However, the main focus of both Peridot and seemingly the criminals was the far end of the structure, as a dozen people surrounded the bank vault with guns and strange tools.

Peridot jumped up to one of the pillars in the center, getting a better vantage point of the crime in progress. Five of the dozen functioned as guards (although seemingly a bad choice as they somehow hadn’t spotted the webhead), four of the dozen carried bags ready to be filled with cash, and three of the dozen sat in front of the vault with an advanced drill, digging into the large metal door.

Peridot quickly thwipped up a web to the ceiling, using it to swing down and knock into all five guards, all of which were lined in an arc, and grab at least two of them by their collars. They all had strange blue uniforms, with seemingly custom ski masks covering their face. The two criminals she had grabbed screamed in terror before the superhero threw them up against one of those central pillars, webbing them against it.

“You guys do realize the title says _penny_ bank, right? I sure hope those duffle bags are filled with coin rolls, cause otherwise your arms will fall off before you even leave the building.” She joked, not feeling threatened in the least as the remaining three guards tried to gather their wits and aim up at the wallcrawler.

Peridot quickly disarmed the remaining three guards, using a webstrand to wrap around them and pull them up by their legs, leaving them hanging from the ceiling in a ball of biodegradable twine. The remaining criminals panicked, and rushed towards the exit.

“Aw, I told the boss she would be here today! Why doesn’t she ever listen to us?!” One of the bagmen, or rather women going off of the voice, shouted as she scrambled.

“Hey! D-Don’t leave us here!” The two guards webbed to the pillar yelled out.

“Don’t worry, I never separate parties.” Peridot snarked, webbing all four bagwomen by their legs and swinging them backwards, knocking over the three vault-crackers in the process. The nerd tossed them back up towards another pillar in the center, the momentum from the swing working with her in knocking them out. She webbed them to the support before they slid back down. For the remaining three baddies, a simple web covering them and sticking them to the floor sufficed.

Peridot let out a breath, looking on in glee at how quickly she took down the robbers. She turned to the three guards webbed to the ceiling, jumping and pulling herself up next to them. She lowered herself to their eye level, suspending herself upside down with her arms while her legs rested against the strand.

“Wait… Waitwaitwait,” Peridot started to babble as she looked closer at the uniforms. “I recognize you clods! You’re the um… Uh, uh uh, the girls who all look like each other!”

Peridot removed the masks from the three criminal guards, revealing three almost identical faces with tan skin, matching each other with wild hair that were dyed dark purple, white, and lilac.

“Ah, I knew it! Wow, how big is your family, huh? Unless you all are clones and this is some big conspiracy to keep the police guessing, cause if so then stars, that’s lame. Clone stories suck.” Peridot remarked as she tapped annoyingly at their faces.

The biggest of the three lookalikes tried to shake away her fingers. “Ugh, ca- Listen, we’re just doing our jobs, alright? No need to be a twerp about it.” She said in a slightly raspy voice, sounding more like a distressed intern rather than a criminal close to capture.

“Well, I think I have all the jurisdiction for twerpening, considering you were being criminals and all that. Plus, clones.”

“We’re not clones! We’re just cousins…”

“Suuuureee…”

Peridot’s ears almost immediately picked up approaching cop cars. “Right on time…” She muttered, turning her body slightly to see red and blue lights start encroaching on the front patio area. She turned her body back to the webbed up robbers, pushing them to make them spin in place. “Listen, I gotta run, but say hi to your ‘cousins’, when you get to the jailhouse. I’d love to hear how they’re doing!”

With a snicker, Peridot let go of the hanging web and instead swung over to one of the many high up windows that surrounded the area. She slid open the window and climbed out, speeding away from what she considered a ‘job well done.’

_‘That’s the fifth bank robbery that I’ve stopped where I’ve found those guys. Are they some sort of gang? Syndicate? I was just joking about the clones thing, but.. Well, you never know.’_ She internally monologued as she swung through the city, _‘And it's always bank robberies, never any hostages or things like that. They certainly have a plan in place, but they just seem kinda… dopey. There’s gotta be some sort of bigger clod behind all of them.’_

She perched herself on a flagpole, observing the expanse of the city while taking a break. _‘Luckily, there doesn’t seem to be anything else going on in the series. You know, I’m starting to get kinda bored of these thugs. Not that I’m wishing for anything worse, stars no, it just… They’re undermatched. I’ve got spider powers and, you know, ‘da skillz’. They’re just common crooks. Wish they’d just realize they haven’t got a chance and just… give up. Would make my life a whole lot easier.’_

Peridot pulled out her phone, remembering the conversation she was having just a few minutes ago.

_**LL: yeah yeah!** _

_**LL: Whenever you’re free!** _

Peridot looked back up at the city. Things seemed peaceful for now, and if the need called for it, she could simply make an excuse and swing back out into action. She was free now..

“No time like the present…”

Peridot shot back a response, and swung off to grab her AP Bio homework. She wasn’t gonna just leave it there if she was gonna try and spend the rest of the day with her friend.

~◇~

Holly Blue sat at her desk, looking over tons of paperwork and bank ledgers as she sipped from a glass of whiskey. She sighed, leaning back into her chair as she rubbed one of her hands against her temples.

Things were not going well for the mob boss. Her ‘business’ was losing money for every operation that she tried to organize, her goons were winding up incarcerated far more than they were supposed to, and on top of that the cops were seemingly getting closer and closer to shutting her down for good. Things were getting out of hand.

And it was all because of that insufferable vigilante that had shown up out of nowhere a month ago.

Holly slammed down the glass on the table, growling at the mere thought of that insufferable menace. For this entire month, that insect had been shutting down all her attempted operations, assisting the cops with so much precision she almost doubted her existence. Almost, if it hadn’t been for the fact that she was losing millions with every robbery she stopped.

The leader leaned back in her chair, grabbing a slip of paper from the desk. She looked over the finance and budget predictions from the money she would hopefully gain from her most recent venture. She desperately needed that capital from the bank. If she didn’t stabilize her costs soon, she was in danger of losing any power she had left in the crime-family scene.

Just then, her office door burst open, and a short girl with red wavy hair rushed in, panting and hunched over while trying to catch her breath.

Holly Blue grabbed her glass, gulping down the remaining drink and smoothing her hair out. “I’m assuming that you’re arriving with news, Carnelian. Please don’t waste my time.” She ordered in a monotone voice.

“S-Sorry, Ms. Holly,” Carnelian replied, gulping down an extra large breath and walking up to the desk, “I’ve got the reports from the Penny Savings heist and… I-It’s not looking good, Ms. Holly.”

Holly leaned over and snatched the report from her underling's hand, leaning back in her chair to read it. However, she didn't even make it past the first sentence before she slammed her fist down on her desk in anger.

"No! No, no no! That can't be possible, this one couldn't have failed! I've lost too much thanks to you blundering fools!" She shouted, rising to her feet and pacing.

Carnelian cowered under the rage of her boss. "I-It ain't our fault, Ms. Holly! It's all because of that brat kid that keeps swinging in! That Spid-"

"Do NOT invoke her name." Holly shouted, turning and pointing a finger down in disgrace. "I _understand_ she's the problem, but it shouldn't take just one acrobat to bring down TWELVE trained women!"

"She's got superpowers, man! She crawls on walls and shoots web from her wrists! I hear from one of the guys she might even eat people or some shit like that!"

"What did I tell you to address me as?!"

"S… Sorry, Ms. Holly."

Holly Blue turned her back on the goon, sighing. Despite any irrational anger she could muster towards any of her crew, she knew that the real problem was that damned arachnid. She could train as many crooks as she wanted for as long as she wanted, and it still wouldn't be able to go up against the strength she had exhibited, or the agility she had mustered.

She needed a solution, and fast. She was running out of time.

"Powers, huh… Well, two can play at that game." She turned to her goon again. "Get that mechanic we met with the other day, tell him I have a project to commission."

"That Tinkerer loon?"

"Yes, that's the one." Holly poured herself another glass of whiskey and downed it all in one gulp. "If you want something done properly, you have to do _everything yourself."_

~🕷~

Lapis sat contently on her bed, her very best friend sitting directly across from her.

She had finally managed to get a chance to spend time with her, finding a new way to coerce her into coming to her place: study sessions. She should have figured, given Peridot's personality, but all self-chastisement disappeared now that she was finally able to spend time with her again.

It had been a whole week since they started those study sessions, lounging together on a Saturday afternoon as Peridot explained some concepts she had been struggling with.

"- And that's how you find X." The blonde concluded, setting down her pencil and passing the notebook she was working in to the bluenette, showing her the solution to one of her predicaments.

Lapis semi-looked over the notebook, but stared down Peridot out of the corners of her eyes. She was happy beyond belief that things were settling back into comfortableness, but something was… different about Peridot. She seemed a lot more anxious, more jumpy, and she seemed like she wasn’t all enthusiastic about hanging out with her, which was a slightly sickening thought.

“Is everything okay? Something confusing?” Peridot asked, concerned.

Lapis put on a smile, shaking her head and handing back her head as she handed back the notebook. "Nah,I got it, you explained it way better than Ms. Ren did. I think I'm just tired. Fifteen minute break?"

"Sure!"

The two set aside their homework and got a bit more comfortable, Lapis even running into her kitchenette to grab a bag of chips.

"So… What's been, uh, going on with you lately? You've been sorta distant." Lapis inquired, hopping to get to the bottom of whatever was bothering her best friend.

Peridot froze up, a chip still in her mouth within the process of being chewed. She gulped down her food and chuckled nervously. “W-Well, you know, uh… Just trying to get ahead on the ol’ schoolwork! I’ve been attempting accelerated studies with less than stellar results, but I’m still pushing to get the jump on things and such.”

Lapis narrowed her eyes slightly, looking closer at the blonde who seemed to be… lying.

Lying was something Peridot had rarely done, and it was never towards Lapis. The two had prided themselves on being able to be honest with each other, not dancing around issues or hiding problems from one another. It was an unspoken promise between each other, a way for both of them to work past the many personal issues that plague their lives.

So, for Peridot to seemingly lie straight to her face with no apprehension, the answer made alarm bells ring throughout Lapis’s nervous system, and her heart tightened up in panic.

“Peri, I…” She felt at a loss for words, “I-I guess I’m proud of you for working ahead, but I just feel like there’s something you’re not telling me, and I don’t know why you wouldn’t. You know you can tell me anything, right?”

The little details she’d always pick up on, the way her hand gripped the hem of her pants, the way her eyes tried to dart away from confrontation, she felt a small amount of pride in picking up on those fine details. But yet, it didn’t make her feel any better on how Peridot was avoiding the question.

“L-Lapis… I know. Believe me, there’s nothing I would try to hide from you. It’s just… things are complicated.”

“Complicated how, Peri? Help me understand, I want to help you.”

“Its… it…”

She almost seemed ready to share whatever secret was gnawing away from her when, as if someone had sent a signal directly to her brain, the nerd jolted her head left, towards the other window that wasn’t facing the fire escape but rather, towards the main road. Two cop cars quickly raced back down the street, their sirens blaring noise as they raced off to some crime far off in the distance.

Peridot shot up from the bed, pulling her phone out and scrambling to open up an app, all the while Lapis stared at her expectantly.

Suddenly, her room was filled up with the sound of a police radio signal, barking off an alert about some sort of bank robbery occurring block away from her home.

“Peridot…” Lapis asked with suspicion in her voice. “Why do you have a police scanner on your phone?”  
  


Peridot seemingly never heard the comment, instead rushing over to the window and jerking it open, staring outside just to see even more cop cars pass by.

As if her thoughts were catching up to her, the blonde turned back around and responded to Lapis’s first comment. “Uh, no reason. Listen, I just realized I forgot to do a thing, a really important thing, my aunt asked me to do it and she’s gonna be home soon and if it’s not done, this important thing, I’m never going to hear the end of it, so I gotta race back to my apartment but I promise I’ll be back after the thing’s done and we can talk, okay? Okay!” She rambled at a thousand miles per hour, snatching her backpack up and opening up the fire escape window.

“O-Okay, um… Well, if you want, you can just leave your backpack here if you’re planning on coming back. After all, we’re gonna keep studying, ri-”

“Studysessionsoveryoudidgreatwecanpickuptomorrowbye!” And with that, Peridot practically leaped out of her building, rushing down the metal scaffolding and racing out of sight.

Lapis sighed, leaning back against her bed as her legs came up to her chest. There were too many things that weren’t making sense, and they _had_ to be confronted. So why couldn’t Lapis just suck it up and peel off that band aid?

No, she knew why.

She was afraid.

Whatever Peridot was hiding, it was so important that she couldn’t even share it with her best friend. And Lapis was terrified that, if she dug too deep, she could scare away Peridot. She felt like she needed Peridot, that she would be completely hopeless if she lost her.

But, to add onto all the troubles going through the bluenette’s head, the front door to her apartment could be heard opening up, and then slamming shut with a thunk.

Lapis rushed over to close her room’s door. Then locked it tight.

~🕷~

‘You messed up big time, Peridot. You messed up big time.’ The hero berated herself as she swung through the streets of New York, following the lines of police cars towards the scene of the crime.

_‘Lying to her face?! You don’t lie to Lapis like that, Parker, she’s your better half, your trust buddy! And now what’re you gonna tell her when you go back? You can’t just break it to her that you’re a superhero, that’s not how things work! The last thing I need is for her to be put in danger from my actions, on top of all the other things going on in our lives.’_

The vigilante was barely paying attention, snapping back into reality to narrowly pull herself away from meeting a sticky complication with a horn blaring semi truck.

_‘Okay, Spidey, focus up. You can deal with Lapis later, right now just take down the bad guys. Going off of my suspicions, this won’t take more than a few minutes.’_

Spider-Gem landed in front of the large structure of a more modern bank, its walls very angular and slightly abstract in its structuring. This time however, cops had already arrived before her, yet they were merely stationed outside with seemingly no intention of going in and more preoccupied with setting a perimeter. Rather than confronting this issue, the wallcrawler simply swung onto one of the bank’s walls and crawled in through a window, escaping the sight of any officers.

Like she had predicted, six goons in funky blue outfits and ski masks all positioned themselves in front of the bank vault, however this time, no armed guards were looking out for the bagwomen or technicians of the group.

Peridot shook this off and landed down in front of them, pulling two crooks by surprise and webbing them up onto the ceiling.

“Guys, look, I know it's hard to get together for family reunions, but there has to be better places to meet then all at the same prison, right?” Peridot sighed and simply adjusted her posture.

The thugs seemed terrified, as always, but something seemed off about their actions. None of the identical criminals ran and screamed like they used to whenever Peridot started messing with them before, but rather they were frozen on the spot and seemed like something else was causing the fear this time.

One of the two thugs operating the drill shakily reached up to press what seemed to be a wireless radio on her ear. “S-She’s all yours boss.” Was all she said.

Peridot tilted her head slightly. “Boss?”

Suddenly, the back of her head tingled with panic and distress, sending jolts of energy and pressure to all parts of her body. It felt like her entire nervous system was screaming out a message to her, trying to warn her of what felt like danger beyond her years. And that message only said one thing-

**_LOOK OUT, YOU CLOD!_ **

But before she could react, her entire body was pulled violently away from the crooks, her arms pressed to her torso by what seemed to be a thick, glowing rope the color blue. She was spun around in a large circle in the atrium, discombobulating her sense of orientation before being slammed into the hard tile floor on her back.

The tether retracted from her body, spinning her slightly above the ground while it uncoiled before dropping her again. She groaned as pain racked her lower back while her stomach struggled to contain the after effects of motion sickness. Despite that, Peridot managed to raise her head slightly to see who could have possibly done that.

Standing in front of her was the imposing figure of a tall lady. Her hair was spun into two buns that looked like rounded horns growing from her head, her body dressed up in a light blue, dark blue and white outfit with strange grid patterns lining the undertones of it. She wore white high heeled boots with a strange metal belt attached to her waist, seeming to be meant for more than just fashion. Her face was covered in a strange light blue mask, with dark blue goggles covering her eyes and that same grid pattern layered over it. To top it all off, in her gloved hands she held a long, glowing whip that coiled out beneath her, with seemingly small vibrations emanating from it and displacing the air surrounding it.

“It seems to me that you are trying to impede on my business, arachnid. And I. Won’t. Allow. _It.”_


	5. Aftershocks

Peridot pulled her feet to her chest and then launched herself forward, landing in a crouched position with one hand outstretched defensively. She stared upward at the costumed gang boss, finding herself somewhat in her shadow.

“Cute outfit. Much fancier than your cohorts. Or should I say underlings?” Peridot took the opportunity to try and investigate the strange weapon in her hand. It pulsed and glowed as it stayed gripped in the masked villain’s hand.

“Do you always blabber so much?” The woman shot back.

“Only for pretty mob bosses like you, miss.”

Pushing back slightly on her feet, Peridot confidently leapt forward, pouncing in an attempt to try and tackle the other lady. However, before she could, the masked villain pulled back her whip, moving her arm and cracking it right in front of her face, creating a wave of energy and shock-waves that knocked the hero into a nearby wall, despite not actually touching her.

Peridot groaned in pain, slumping downward while clutching her stomach.

_‘How… on earth… that was REALLY painful.’_

“Quite a _shocker,_ isn’t it? You’re not the only one who can change with the times.” The villain said, coiling the whip slightly in her hand to shorten it up. Peridot pulled her senses together and got back to her feet, rushing forward to the villain and dodging beneath her legs at the very last second, barely missing another shock-wave. Using her webbing, she pulled at the villains feet and tripped her up, causing her to fall flat on her face.

However, before she could attack the incapacitated whipster, she heard drilling coming from the other end of the building. Immediately, her concentration was distracted by the other thugs trying to break into the bank vault. She immediately rushed and jumped up into the air, getting ready to web one of the technicians away from the device currently breaking through the metal door.

However, before she could, the glowing whip wrapped around the entirety of her body, pulling herself down to the floor.

“Excuse me, I don’t believe we were finished!” The mob boss yelled, using all of her strength to start spinning the hero in large circles, gaining momentum with every cycle. The vigilante tried to struggle against the strong grip, but soon lost her force as her body was slammed into various bank booths, desks, waiting chairs, and even a light fixture as the cycles gained height as well as speed. Eventually, the villain uncoiled the whip, throwing the hero through the entrance of the bank and causing her to slam and scrape violently against the outside pavement.

The blonde’s elbows and knees stung painfully from scraping against concrete while her head spun from the centrifugal force her body was just forced through. She tried to pull herself up from the ground again, but only managed to pull her upper half upright, a hand resting on her stomach.

The mob boss stepped out of the bank, staring down the hero laid out in front of her. The cops surrounding Spider-Gem all aimed back towards the villain, their guns shaking slightly in their hands.

“NYPD, Don’t move!” One of the officers shouted.

“Put down the, uh, whip and put your hands behind your head!” One of the other officers yelled, his gun practically falling out of his grip.

Peridot watched in terror as the villain spun up her whip, shooting out a shock-wave that knocked off the top of one the police cruisers, causing three officers to be knocked one way and one lone policeman knocked the other. Then, in another act of aggression, she spun the whip up again and shattered the ground in front of the other police cruiser parked in front of the bank, causing it to go flying into the air…

Right in the direction of that lone officer.

“Nonononono!” Peridot shouted, strength returning in fear as she rushed towards the car’s trajectory. She watched as the officer looked on in terror before squeezing his eyes shut and curling up in preparation for the impact.

At the very last second, she maneuvered underneath the car, catching it and supporting it on her back with a grunt. Her muscles tensed up in usage as the vehicle creaked in weight.

The officer peaked his eyes open after mysteriously surviving, only spotting the car hovering right above him.

“H-Hey, you okay?”

He nodded silently.

“C-Cool. Please move.”

The policeman scrambled out of the way, running directly to his left and into cover, while Peridot’s knees buckled for a moment as she slammed the car right in front of her, leaning against it to catch her breath.

However, not even allowed a millisecond of respite, the whip recoiled around the center of her body and pulled her roughly, flinging her back into the bank while her adversary smugly walked in after her. Peridot hit the concrete wall, causing it to crack behind her, before sliding down to the floor.

“O-Okay, she’s definitely got a thing for shock-waves...” She tried to mutter, her head throbbing in pain and anxiety, her sixth sense blaring with the threat of danger. She jumped backwards and stuck to the wall, her vision going double as the blurry image in front of her came closer, “Listen, Miss Shocker, I suggest you stop this whole funny business before I stop going easy on you!”

“Is this ‘going easy?’ I was starting to think you weren’t doing anything at all, child.” The lady, Shocker in Peridot’s head, cracked her whip in the air. “And I have a name, you know.”

Peridot’s ears picked up a new noise in the air, the sound of metal finally being cut through and falling to the floor. Her head jerked to the side as she saw the technician thugs finally break through the vault door and move out of the way, letting the bagwomen move to grab the goods from the bank.

Her brain became distracted once more, not used to having to deal with both a supervillain and a major crime happening at the same time. She tried to multitask, shooting a web in the general direction of Shocker’s face (but missing) while jumping and swinging closer to the vault. She actually managed to grab one of the thugs by her leg and pulled her away from the hole in the vault, be she was quickly incapacitated as the whip grabbed her leg and pulled her from the air, slamming her back down to the floor.

“Did your mother raise you to be so distracted? I’d figured you to be a bit more disciplined.” Shocker taunted, walking towards the hero.

Peridot felt a twinge of more genuine anger flow through her, before it was replaced with the aching of her body.

A piece of the ceiling fell from its supports, having come loose due to the structural damage from all the shock-waves and vibrations from the supervillain. Shocker immediately took notice of this, moving to curl her whip around the wreckage and using her leverage to throw it back at the Spider-Gem.

For once, her extra senses worked with her, giving the vigilante an early warning as the chunk of ceiling flew towards her. She jumped into the air and stuck to the ceiling, the piece just barely missing her and instead crashing to the wall. The mob boss tried the same trick again, launching her weapon in the direction of the webhead. However, she had finally learned, and caught the coil in her hands and pulled it taut. However, shocker only chuckled, and pressed her finger against a button on the handle of the whip.

Peridot’s body was filled with vibrations and shock-waves, the whip in her hands transferring the kinetic energy directly into her core. Her head throbbed with what felt like a million migraines at the same time, and her organs felt like they had been shifted into places and locations they _definitely_ shouldn’t be in. She fell limply from the ceiling, hitting the floor with a thump. Her eyes were struggling to stay open as her brain screamed out in agony.

Shocker stepped a little closer, almost seeming saddened at the dismal state the hero was left in. She raised her whip into the air, spinning it above her head in a circular motion. The air around it fizzled and vibrated, energy seemingly building up in the coils as she spun it more vigorously.

Peridot made a feeble attempt to move out of the way, but it was too late. A massive super-shock-wave hit her entire form, incapacitating her and leaving her almost motionless.

Shocker seemed like she was about to go in for another attack, but one of her thugs came up behind her. “Ms. Holly, we got the money! We need to get out of here, the cops won’t stay sacred much longer!”

The villain’s gaze darted between her minion and the hero lying still. She nodded, the bagwoman nodding back and running to the back area of the bank.

“Normally, I hate to leave anything I start unfinished, but this is a special case. I don’t know if you’re conscious enough to hear this, but this isn’t meant to be a homicide, rather a lesson: Stay out of our way. There’s no need for bloodshed, in my opinion. Stay in your lane of petty crooks, and I’ll stay in mine. After all, there isn’t really much you can do otherwise. You’re _no match_ for me, Spider.” The villain barked. She began walking away in the direction of her other cohorts, before her gaze drifted to another large chunk of building just barely hanging on to its supports.

“One last parting gift…” She spun her whip up again and launched another shock-wave, sending the chunk careening below into individual pieces, trapping the hero underneath the rubble without actually crushing her.

With that, Shocker fled from the scene of the crime. But that didn’t matter to Peridot, in the moment, as she was in the very busy process of completely passing out.

~🕷~

Her eyes shot open as the rubble around her shifted.

Peridot groaned, clutching her head in pain as she tried to move her body, the weight of the chunks kept her trapped beneath its pieces. She tried to call upon her increased strength, but the aching from her muscles made it impossible for her to move anything. However, the rubble kept shifting around her, and light slowly began creeping into the artificial cavern that she found herself in.

Slowly but surely, the rocks and wreckage began to move away, and the hero saw three officers struggle but successfully move the largest chunk in front of her face, allowing fresh air to flow into her lungs again rather than dust.

“Holy… I-Is that her?!” One of the officers yelled.

“Dang, I, uh…” The second officer began patting himself down, cursing to himself, “Crap, I left my cuffs in the cruiser! Charles, go see if anyone else got trapped in the crumble. Davis, you keep watch on her till I get back!” The second officer ran back to the entrance of the building while the first officer ran towards another pile of bank chunks.

The third officer stared down at the vigilante, not saying a word.

It was the one Peridot had saved from getting crushed by the cop car.

He watched as the Spider-Gem wiggled and struggled to move from the rest of the debris covering her body, whimpering when it shifted and starting to dig into her leg. She knew she had to escape, she technically was committing vigilantism and knew as soon as that other cop returned she would be arrested, but she didn’t have the strength to escape.

But then, the third officer reached his hand out, beckoning Peridot to take it.

She instantly did, working with him to free herself from her pseudo-prison. She stood up, clutching her sides while staring at the officer. He gaped at her in shock, not knowing what to do.

“... Go.” He muttered.

Peridot checked behind him to see if any of the other cops had noticed her. Deeming herself in the clear, she jumped and flipped behind her. Crawling up the wall to one of the high up windows. She started to slip it open when that second officer returned.

“H-Hey, she’s getting away! Davis, what did you do?!” He yelled, pulling out his taser and aiming it at her. The third officer still kept staring.

Peridot pulled the taser out of the officer’s hand with a web, then looked back over to Officer Davis. She nodded in gratitude. He nodded in return.

She crawled out of the window, thwipping and swinging away from the bank. She kept trying to get away, but her body was crying out for a break, and her grip almost slipped on a webstrand while swinging, which would’ve sent her tumbling into the traffic below her. She swung up to the top of a roof, her feet tripping on themselves and causing her to fall on her back.

She grunts, quickly removing her mask and gasping for air. A small stream of blood was leaking from her nose and a dark bruise was starting to form around her eye. Despite having fought almost an hour ago, her ears were still ringing and her head was throbbing with pain.

But what hurt more was her pride.

She had thought herself invincible for a time, like she had found something she could excel at, something she didn’t need help with doing. Thugs fell left and right, and she felt like she was making a difference. Yet, the moment someone strange and stronger than her showed up, she was wrecked, they had wiped the floor with her. She probably could’ve done more, but _she didn’t._

And then came the what-ifs, the alternate scenarios that her brain automatically filled her head with, and they came within full force. She could’ve done so much better: kept the officers clear, attacked the henchmen when she first had the chance, kept her head focused instead of jumping from place to place.

She thought she could fight back, thought she could do something spectacular, but she couldn’t. One bad guy decided to upgrade and suddenly, she felt powerless against them.

Peridot pulled herself upright, limping slightly to the edge of the building. She didn’t know what to do at the moment, couldn’t find the straight and narrow to keep going down. But her body knew exactly what it wanted: sleep, rest, any sort of relaxation it could get. Almost on autopilot, she slowly slipped her mask back on and shakily crawled down the side of the building. She hobbled toward the subway station, slipping undetected over the turnstiles and climbing onto the side of a train car, riding it back to her apartment.

She arrived home to an empty unit, a note on the table noting a late shift for her aunt, making Peridot silently thank the occurrence. She had no idea how she would ever explain her wounds to Bleu, this was way more than any scuffle she would ever reasonably get into. Walking into the bathroom, she grabbed a roll of toilet paper and cleaned up her bloodied nose, stuffing a small rolled up piece in to stop extra blood flow. Cleaning up any other visible wounds, she put the roll down and exited the bathroom.

Entering her bedroom, she slipped off her outfit, letting out small noises of pain and whimpers as it snagged against parts of her body. She stuffed it under her bed and gently lay on top of it.

Pulling the covers to her neck, Peridot felt more confused and hurt than she ever had before.

~🕷~

Checking her phone the next morning brought even more guilt to her psyche.

**_LL: Don’t come back_ **

**_LL: Dad came home early_ **

Yet another weight added onto her battered brain, Peridot cursed herself for not checking her messages the night before, even though noting she was very distracted with _other problems._ Still, she should’ve messaged back to check on her friend, at the very least.

That Sunday morning, she took a quick shower in order to clean off any of the grime that was forgotten from yesterday, removed that pesky paper in her nose, and got dressed in some casual wear. She still felt horrible, mentally, but at the very least she was presentable.

She sent a quick slurry of texts to her friend and sat in wait for a response.

**_PDot: I’m sorry for not responding last night. I didn’t mean to ignore you like that._ **

**_PDot: Can I make it up to you? We can go get ice cream at Sudge Funday. No drama, no unwanted discussion, just relaxation._ **

Checking the time for a moment, she was shocked. She slept through the entire morning, it was sometime in the afternoon. She figured she slept in late due to her aunt not being home, but still…

_‘How much do you think you missed because you slept so long? That Shocker character is probably wrecking up more while you’re here, licking your wounds…’_

She shook her head away from those thoughts, not wanting to hear them in the moment. The sound of an incoming notification drew her attention again.

**_LL: Yes please_ **

**_LL: Sorry if I scared you off yesterday, I didn’t mean to dig into something probs personal._ **

**_LL: Meet you there in a few minutes?_ **

**_PDot: Sure. I’ll pay._ **

She got up and nabbed a $10 bill from her allowance savings, stuffing it into her pocket with her phone and exiting the building. She slowly walked towards the ice cream parlor, trying to keep weight off of her left leg to allow it a bit more room to heal. As she walked, she started noticing many side glances and worried looks people were giving her. It was only then she realized that she was probably showing the full effects of yesterday’s battle, and that bruising was probably sitting on her face in all its painful glory.

There was no way that she’d be able to explain that to Lapis.

Peridot ignored it, like so many more things she’d like to just forget about. She just kept limping her way to the ice cream parlor.

She arrived at the small, quaint building squished between two larger complexes. It had a large, painted sign at the top of it, showing off the funny play on words with an icon of a fudge sundae next to the title. She walked into the shop, a small bell ringing to announce a customer entering. The attendant watched the blonde enter, his cheery disposition falling away upon seeing the bruise on her face, doing no good to quell Peridot’s fears of explaining things to her friend.

“Biking accident.” She said blandly to the attendant, causing him to nod and turn back to looking over the ice cream flavors.

Peridot sat down at one of the two-people tables in the back corner, notifying Lapis over text that she had arrived. A few minutes later, Lapis peaked through the window of the joint to try and spot Peridot inside, smiling at first when finding her but gasping when spotting her wound.

She quickly slipped inside, rushing over to sit in front of her friend and cupping her face in her hands, being careful to avoid pushing painfully on the bruise.

“Peridot, what on earth happened to you?!” She asked worryingly.

“I… may have been messing with something I wasn’t supposed to. It kinda slammed into my face.” Peridot quickly thought of an excuse on the spot.

“Don’t tell me you were tinkering with that toaster again?”

“Y-Yeah, that’s the one. Thought I could get it to work again.”

_‘As if I would ever touch that machination from hell again.’_

Lapis sighed, pulling backwards when sitting down. “Was this your quote-unquote ‘chore’ you had to take care of yesterday?”

“No, not really. I was cleaning my room and, you know, it fell and sprung back up into my face. Let’s just focus on something else for now, my mind’s kinda swamped with… other things.”

“Oh. Okay then. You wanna, um, get some cones?”

Peridot nodded and got back up, walking over to the front counter of the parlour and ordering up some deserts and paying with her ten bucks. She returned to the table carrying two items, a cone of Cookie Dough flavor for Lapis and a cup of Mango flavor for herself: their two favorites. She handed Lapis the cone and sat back down, enjoying the smile that came to her face.

“Thanks, I really needed it. Dad wasn’t in a real… pleasant mood last night.” She ended that sentence with a few licks of her cone.

“I’m sorry I didn’t respond earlier, I didn’t see the message till this morning. If I had known, I would’ve tried to get you out of the house for the day.”

“Nah you’re good. Besides, I don’t think he would’ve appreciated me sneaking out while he was home. Plus, next day make-up Ice Cream feels a lot better, if I’m being honest.”

“Well, I’m glad I could cheer you up. Were you able to finish up your homework?”

“Yeah, thanks to you. I seriously doubt I would’ve understood any of it without your help, you’re like god of math or something.”

Peridot chuckled at that, but lowered her gaze down to her own ice cream. She picked at it a bit with her spoon, only bringing a small bite to her mouth after a few seconds of pouting. Lapis tilted her head in concern and placed a hand on top of the blonde’s. She looked back up into her blue eyes.

“Hey, is something wrong? There’s something up with you, did something happen last night?” She asked warmly, her tone and emotion beckoning Peridot to spill her fears out to her.

“I’d… rather not talk about it. My pride and I aren’t exactly on nice enough terms to recount.” Peridot said bashfully.

“Peri, we don’t really have to talk about the problem itself, I just wanna help you, please? Maybe, uh… Oh! If you don’t wanna talk about it, you can just use an analogy.”

_‘An analogy? Well… It wouldn’t hurt to talk about it, especially with Lapis. I doubt she could help with something like this, though…’_

“O-Okay, well… Say I’m the top student in my class-”

“Like you already aren’t.” Lapis said with a small smirk.

“Heh, okay, I walked into that. Okay, say I’m top of my class, I feel like I can solve any problem put in front of me, right? I’m kinda feeling invincible, like I’m the ‘smartest’ girl in the world. And _suddenly,_ my teacher decides she’s tired of me essentially… uh, ‘humiliating’ her, so she assigns me the hardest problem I’ve ever seen in my life. A-And, I thought I could solve it, I really did, but I failed completely. And now, I’m failing the class and don’t know what to do.” Peridot felt quite silly, explaining her situation with such a confusing and strange metaphor, but looking back at Lapis and seeing complete understanding in her eyes made her feel miles better.

“Well, as far as advice goes, I’d start by getting such a shit teacher fired.” Peridot let out a little giggle at that comment. “But, for the rest of those issues, if I were where you are, I would just do what you taught me about tough problems.”

“What… I taught you?”   
  
“Yeah, don’t you remember? Freshman year, you thought up this whole method to help me in my classes?”

“I’m sorry, uh… Maybe jog my memory for me?”  
  


Lapis sighed, adjusting herself in her seat. “You broke it down into four steps. One, you analyze the issue; don’t go rushing headlong into something you’re having trouble with. Two, you break things down into smaller, more manageable parts; you kept telling me ‘you can’t eat an elephant in one bite’. Three, you take care of the things you already know; it helps to thin things down to the main issue and frees up thinking space. Four, and finally, you can’t give up hope on that last stretch of the problem. You give up, you lose all that progress that you invested into that issue.”  
  


Peridot pulled back slightly, letting out a breathy laugh as she took in this repetition of information. The whole method, that she herself created, this was something she somehow had overlooked and forgotten. She had approached being a superhero as something completely different, something she had to change her entire outlook on life for. And while, yes, it was an exemption from her normal life, that was no reason for her to eliminate logic from her battles. She was fighting too wildly, she wasn’t focused.

But _that,_ she could change.

Her negative thoughts started to change to self motivational ones, her spirit lifting itself out of its dark pit. “Lapis, I… I don’t know what to say. That was perfect, that’s exactly what I needed. Thank you so mu-”

Lapis silenced her politely, pressing a finger gently to her lips with a smile before tapping the tip of her nose. “Hang on, dork, you didn’t let me finish. You told me all those steps, you explained what they meant, but you always emphasized something you never neglect. It's not a step in a system or a rule to follow, it's just morals: never be afraid to ask for help. I’m really glad you talked to me about this. If… If you ever need help with anything else, please know you can always ask me for help. You’ve done a lot for me, I can always return the favor.” She said, losing confidence in her voice near the end.

Peridot grabbed the hand that had silenced her before, holding it in a caring grasp. “Thank you, Lapis, really.”

The bluenette smiled back at her friend, taking a few more licks from her ice cream cone. Peridot took another scoop from her cup, the enjoyment from the sugary confection bringing more joy to her now that her mind was refocused. At one point, she even got a small drip of it on her nose, causing Lapis to snort with laughter.

 _‘Two birds with one stone, made Lapis happy and figured out what went wrong.’_ The nerd thought to herself as she enjoyed her afternoon. _‘Count your checks, Shocker, cause as soon as my wounds are patched up, I’m coming for the rematch!’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late chapter! Had to figure out how to execute a few things for this first arc.


	6. A Name For A Hero

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SOOOOOOO sorry for disappearing! Dodogama and I were hitting writer's block after block, we just couldn't get through this chapter. But now that we've moved past it, we're back on track! Stay tuned, the next chapter will be out soon!
> 
> This one's written exclusively by Dodogama. Enjoy!

The incessant buzz and chatter of the high schools’ hallways thrummed against the small blonde’s eardrums. She had half a mind to stick her hands over her ears, but the bullying she often received would certainly become worse if one of the perpetrators caught her.

Currently, it was lunch break, the excited hum of being away from textbooks and smart-boards echoed throughout the school. The students all making their way to the large cafeteria to grab the, questionably edible and half-decent meals. Others going to classes to study or sneaking outside to grab food from other, more reliable sources like the local McDonalds.

The vertically challenged teen went with the flow of the students towards the cafeteria, though before reaching the doorway that led to the common area of the school and - by extension - the cafeteria, she turned left into the art electives hallway.

Along the walls and between the doors of the long corridor were pinned up photos of birds, of plants or even the Brooklyn cityscape, these were from the school’s photography classes. Peridot stopped and smiled proudly at a group of colourful photos hung on the wall. All of which boasted her name in the bottom corners.

Some were of birds flying through the sky, speeding through the tall concrete towers and racing the cars through the air channels. Others were of the smaller animals and creatures that could be found, although rarely, in the parks of her city, either running up trees away from an unseen terror or just enjoying the environment around them away from the buzz of the city in their grass haven.

Though the one Peridot was proudest of was one she took only a week ago. She had climbed to the top of one of the many skyscrapers and, using her web slingers, she managed to get some pictures of birds gliding through the air above the ongoing traffic, the city lights and the dying sunlight casting a light orange hue over everything.

The door to the photography class opened just then and Jamie, the photography teacher, stepped out, grinning when he spotted Peridot.

“Peridot, I didn’t expect to see you here! Class doesn’t start until after lunch, did you need something?” He shouldered the cloth satchel bag hung around his shoulder. Peridot smiled at the apparent enthusiasm in his voice.

“No, I was just passing through,” she gestured further down the hall towards the art section “I was just getting my friend to have lunch with.”

“Oh! The blue-haired girl I always see you with?” Peridot nodded “Vidalia says good things about her, she’s one of her best students! Always helping others and never causes any commotions, and her artwork is absolutely marvelous!” He ended it with a light flourish of his hand.

Peridot chuckled lightly “Yeah, she’s pretty great…”

Jamie smiled and threaded a hand through his wavy hair “Well, I’d better get going, today they’re giving the teachers Chinese for lunch! I just hope Barb didn’t take all the orange chicken like she did last time.” He waved and bowed with a flourish “Whelp, I’ll see you again soon my pupil!”

Peridot shook her head and smiled as he turned “Yeah, you too.”

She twisted around and walked down the hall, the photography that plastered the wall slowly turned into sketches and paintings from the art classrooms. The dull sound of talking reached Peridot’s ears through a door covered in paints made to look like the night sky with a multicoloured galaxy stretching across.

She could see a tall figure with blue hair move around the classroom whilst talking through the door’s window. It was Lapis, Peridot smiled and reached for the doorknob before a staticky and raspy sound erupted from her phone’s speaker.

She jumped and quickly retrieved her phone from her pocket, fumbling with it to turn it off. It was her police radio and - jeez - why the hell was it so _loud?_ It even seemed to echo off the walls of the school, amplifying the sound.

Before she hit the small button to turn the radio off, she heard _masked criminals, bank robbery,_ and _a perpetrator with whip._

She stopped and glanced up to the tiny window, Lapis was still talking though couldn’t be seen anymore. They were supposed to hang out today but this, this could be her payback. And if she didn’t get there, if _Spider-Gem_ didn’t get there, someone could get hurt.

Peridot clenched her phone and turned abruptly, muttering a silent apology before she ran towards the nearest exit.

The door to the art room opened, Lapis Lazuli stepping out with her bag and belongings. She looked down the hallway.

No one was there.

~🕷~

Peridot swung through the city at a fast pace, at times she almost missed the buildings she was aiming for, trying to get to the bank as quickly as possible.

The distant echo of police sirens guided her before she saw the tall gray marble arches and Roman designs calling attention to the bank. A barricade of police cars surrounded the front of the building, officers placing tape and wooden barricades as well.

On the steps of the bank stood the Shocker. She held her whip at the ready but stood still, silently watching as the semi-circle of policemen pointed their guns at her, yelling through intercoms and radios to drop her weapon and put her hands in the air to be arrested.

Not to be noticed, Peridot shot a web at the towering structure next to the shorter marble one and swung there, clinging to the wall before jumping down onto the banks’ wall, climbing to one of the windows and crawling in after opening it.

Inside she saw the same masked women from before already on the way of busting the bank’s vault open. Through the glass front of the bank, she could see the unwavering back of the Shocker.

Peridot took a breath, thinking back to the conversation she’d had with Lapis and what she should do.

_First; analyze the situation._

The bank’s vault was in the very back, three of the criminals were drilling through the thick steel doors while three others stood guard, each of the guards held a gun. On the left side of the building, directly across from Peridot, two guards chatted idly, seeming to be keeping watch, they also had guns. But the doors to the bank were closed, the Shocker wouldn’t be able to hear them unless someone screamed or a gun was shot.

_Second; break it all down, form a plan._

Getting the criminals to stop their drilling was a pretty big priority to Peridot, but that would fail if she gets spotted. She could web the two watchmen to the ceiling, but first, she would need to disarm them or web their guns so they couldn’t use them.

Then she’d need to immediately do the same to the other guards near the vault, that way there’d be almost no attention drawn to her. Lastly webbing up the drillers, that shouldn’t be too hard though seeing as they didn’t seem to have any weapons that Peridot could see.

Then it was all just a matter of subduing the Shocker, Peridot may not have had a plan for that, but if she knew anything, it was winging it.

_Third; take care of the things you know._

Peridot took in as much air that her tiny lungs could hold, she could do this, she _would_ do this. After all, she was Spider-Gem.

She pushed off the wall, shooting a web line onto the ceiling, swinging off it. At her crescendo, she used her other hand to shoot webbing at the two guards guns, successfully gluing them to the guard’s bodies.

They turned around, opening their mouths to yell something, but Peridot was faster, she webbed their mouths shut with a quick flick of her hand. She jumped down, landing silently onto the marble floor before she kicked the guards into the wall and stuck them there.

She put her finger to where her mouth would be, signalling for them to be quiet before she crawled onto the ceiling. From her vantage point, she saw the other three guards in a small circle, not really paying attention and trading jokes with one another.

They stood next to a table and a few chairs, Peridot smiled at the idea she had.

She shot a loose web to the ceiling and swung off towards them, she let go when she was above the group and landed to the side of them. They stopped talking and looked over, their mouths hung open in silent shock.

Before any of them could recover Peridot kicked the first thug into the white leather chair behind them, followed by her ducking to the ground and sweeping the other two’s legs out from under them. One of them landed on the table which broke with the sudden weight, the other landed mere centimeters from the chair, Peridot internally cringed when she saw their head bonk the floor.

Quickly though, she webbed them onto the surfaces they landed on, also making sure their mouths were sealed.

So far, everything was going well, but Peridot knew not to count this as a win yet, she still had the other criminals and the Shocker left to take out.

Speaking of, the vigilante’s head whipped around at the sound of a loud clang. The drillers had spotted her and one of them dropped their wrench out of shock, a moment passed of them silently staring at each other before one of them reached for the walkie-talkie strapped to their tool belt.

The Spider reacted quickly, thwipping a web at her hand sticking it to her body. The other two dropped the large drill and ran in opposite directions. Peridot huffed before she webbed a stool and yanked it making it collide with the criminal, she fell over as her legs were taken out, Peridot simply stuck her to the floor.

Quickly turning around she spotted the other masked robber hightailing it to the door, she threw her hand out, webbing the robbers lower legs and pulled roughly forcing the large woman to fall face first.

Peridot smiled to herself and turned though stopped when she heard the crackling sound of a walkie talkie radio. She’d forgotten about the last one as they’d managed to free themselves from the sticky webbing gluing their hand to their torso.

‘“M-ma’am, we uh- we have a problem, _she’s_ here” The criminals’ voice was filled with nervousness.

Peridot gritted her teeth and using her web-shooters, she shot the walkie-talkie out of their hand before shooting another tendril at a desk chair behind them and knocking them off their feet. She got ready to run over before the clicking of heels stopped her in place.

“I see you didn’t learn anything after our last _altercation_ -” the sound of a whip cracking echoed through the lobby “-looks like I’ll just have to beat it into you again, _Pest.”_

A tingling sense of danger at the back of Peridot’s mind made her jump, she backflipped and watched as the whip grasped at thin air beneath her. She landed as the Shocker readied her whip for another throw.

Thinking fast, Peridot spotted a stool and shot a rope at it before swinging it at the Shocker. Taken off guard, the Shocker jumped back, not before getting hit in the leg with it, she growled lifting her arm. Peridot quickly launched herself at a pillar but wasn’t quick enough as the whip wrapped around her ankle before being slammed into the ground.

Peridot choked back a scream as shockwaves and vibrations emanated from the whip, it felt like her leg was about to fall off. She tried to aim her slinger at the wall but before she could, her leg and body were yanked to the side, she slid across the floor before crashing into the wall, she gasped as pain rocketed into her side.

She felt the whip wrapped around her ankle loosen and being pulled away, Peridot’s leg and lower body felt numb and were like jelly when she tried to move. “I guess this is it, Spider. Oh, but don’t take this personally. It’s just business, you understand.”

She heard the slither of the whip slide across the floor and the wind rush, shutting her eyes tightly, Peridot got ready for the pain that was to come. But instead, she heard the distinct sound of a gunshot and a dull clatter followed by a gasp.  
  


“Son of a-”

“This is the NYPD, put your hands up and don’t move!”

Peridot lifted herself up by her good arm and saw the same police officer from yesterday standing a few feet behind the Shocker with a gun pointed towards them. Her eyes darted to the Shocker, she was holding her hand that had blood dripping from the side of it, the light blue whip lay discarded on the ground.

“Ugh, looks like my workers can’t even keep the police away, can they…” She dipped down and reached for her whip.

“HEY, hands in the air NOW!”

He aimed again, this time for her leg but before a shot could be fired the masked woman twisted around, throwing her whip at him which coiled around his wrist and shook violently. The officer gasped and dropped his gun and struggled to get the rope off.

“Normally, I don’t _entertain_ direct conflicts with this city’s police, but sometimes, you need to show who’s the boss.”

Peridot gritted her and stood using the wall to her left as support, she watched as the officer was pulled down by his wrist and fell to the ground. The Shocker walked towards him, paying no attention to Peridot who glanced up to the ceiling.

She let a grin form as she used her good am to swing onto the ceiling, she flipped over and watched as the Shocker stood before the officer, she raised her whip as it shook with vibrations that could break concrete. The officer wouldn’t survive if he was hit with that.

“Yo, Quakey! Why don’t you pay attention to some of the smaller guys, eh?”

The lady turned and tried to spot where the masked vigilante went, just as she looked to the ceiling, the Spider jumped off and flipped mid-air, she shot to either side of the Shocker and pulled herself forward.

Like a slingshot, she rocketed towards the masked lady who couldn’t even lift her arm before Peridot was in her face, or rather, her foot was in her face. When she came within mere meters of the villain Peridot kicked her foot up and uppercut the Shocker.

She flipped and landed crouched in front of the dazed villain, they held their jaw, their whip lay on the ground, and she stumbled back. Seeing her chance, the Spider shot one last web at the Shockers’ chest pulling her forward and grabbed her shirt.

“Sorry Shocker. I’d hate to leave things all _tied up_ , but it’s your _fault,_ not mine.”

She punched the lady in the nose, knocking her out, before dropping the criminal to the ground. “ _Fault? Really?_ Man, that was dumb,” she mumbled before looking over to the officer. The man was still on the marble floor, he watched her warily before letting out a measly chuckle.

“I uh- Thank you, ma’am, for helping with all this.” He stood and lightly gestured to the strewn about criminals.

Peridot smiled and nodded “Not a problem, sir. Just stay away from high heeled ladies with whips next time, yeah? Unless you’re, you know, working through some stuff.” The officer chuckled and seemed to want to say something else when his radio buzzed to life.  
  
 _“D-Davis? You good in there?”_

He reached up to the comm and pressed a button “Yeah, it’s good in here, all of the offenders are… subdued.” He let go and looked back to the super. “You should probably go, you’ll still be convicted of being a vigilante if you stay.”

Peridot nodded and readied herself to swing to the window she had come from, but before she could the officer stopped her.  
  


“Wait!” She turned her head “Who can we thank for this?”

Peridot grinned even though she knew he couldn’t see it “There’s no need to thank me, I’m just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Gem.”


	7. Home Alone

The pencil glided along the paper like a paintbrush to canvas, the hand holding it making careful, precise movements to the picture it was developing…

Eh, who was Lapis kidding? She was doodling.

It was late afternoon on Friday, already a few hours after school had let out. The bluenette's homework was shoved into her backpack, untouched and nowhere close to finished. It was the end of the week, and Lapis wanted to do nothing but veg out.

Well… That wasn’t entirely true.  
  
Lapis _actually_ wanted to be somewhere else entirely. In fact, she had been expecting to. Peridot had promised her some more time together, but once again more ‘pressing issues’ came up for the nerd. This time, she didn’t even bother sending a text, making the girl fret even more about her friend. Right now, however, she couldn’t take the stress of everything in her life. All she wanted, after all, was to veg out, and that would happen with or without Peridot.

She was currently sitting on her couch in her small apartment living room, the TV making for background noise while she scribbled away on a notepad.

Her doodles, to her, were much different than her drawings. While her artistry was usually planned out and carefully created, her scribbles were little more than a fun hobby and stress relief. Lapis would draw and create small creatures, tiny vistas, and funny ideas on paper, such as an octopus wearing a top hat, or a mini Grand Canyon. They occupied the same notebook as her regular art, but were far different in the style.

Lapis dug her hand into a bag of chips by her side, tossing them into her mouth before going back to drawing. Her eyes glanced up for a moment to the TV, only to see some random news story about a bank robbery on the screen. She grabbed her pencil and began dra-

Lapis' head shot back up to the screen, her hand blindly searching for the remote to turn it up. The volume increased right in the middle of the on-site reporter giving a recap.

"-on the scene with NYPD officer, Jeff Davis, who recently apprehended small crime boss, Holly Beletta, Alias Holly Blue Agate." The small woman turned her microphone to a police man standing next to her, the camera refocusing on him.

"Thank you, but uh, I can't take all the credit. Without the help of my fellow officers securing the scene, I wouldn't have been able to take her down. She was using technology we had never seen before. I'm not allowed to give details at this time, but expect updates later." He explained, his hands hooked into his belt.

"Now, there have been reports of a possible vigilante that showed up to help at the scene, can you confirm this?"

Lapis swore under her breath as she flipped through the pages of her sketchbook, trying to find a certain drawing she made the day she brushed with vehicular death.

The scene on the TV switched from the interview to possibly footage of the bank robbery, recorded on what seemed to be a phone, showcasing a strange video of what seemed to be a person _swinging_ away from the crime scene. Officer Davis talked over the video whilst it played

"At this time, we don't have enough information to make any definitive statements on this matter, but the precinct has cleared me to say this: she is a wanted vigilante. Any information on her potential whereabouts, identity, or any of the sort should be promptly turned over to the police. She goes by the name Spider-Gem, and should be considered dangerous." The way he said that statement made it seem like it had to be coerced out of him, as if it weren’t really what he wanted to say.

Lapis finally found the page in question, holding her notebook steady while she looked back up at the TV. The screen had freezed on a cut of the video that showed the clearest possible image of the vigilante. Comparing...

Hey, it was pretty good.

Lapis couldn't make out too many of the details on the screen (it was a PHONE video, after all. Not really known for their high quality), but she could see she got it mostly right. She may have taken some creative liberties on some parts, such as the shorts and the sleeves on her jacket, but she had captured her likeness as close as possible.

"Thank you for your time, Officer. Back to you at the studio, Jameson!"

The screen cut to show an old man with graying hair and a bushy mustache sitting at a desk, wearing a red tie, white dress shirt, and black suspenders.

"There you have it, folks! Our suspicions have been confirmed: while our brave boys in blue are out fighting on the field, a new mysterious vigilante is out selfishly taking the law into their own hands! This so-called 'Spider-Gem' is still at large, and is posing a menace unseen to our fair city that it hasn't seen in years!" The man shouted towards the camera, his coffee on the desk spilling slightly as his voice shook the table.

_'Menace?! She's doing way more than you've probably ever done, whiskers.'_ Lapis thought, angry to see the person that has saved her life being belittled on live TV.

"Folks, as the good officer said, we urge you to turn over any and all information about this masked marauder to the authorities as SOON as possible. She is NOT a hero, ladies and gentlemen, she's a freak of nature. The best you can do to guard against this menace? Continue watching the Daily Bugle for the only news you can trust, twenty fou-"

"Oh, shove it in your tabloids, asshole!" Lapis shouted, grabbing the controller and shutting the TV off in a huff. She laid back into the couch, grabbing the sketchbook again and looking down at her drawing.

"Spider-Gem… kinda tacky," She chuckled to herself, "But at least I have a name for my hero."

Her phone buzzed to life. A quick glance at the message on it made her groan: her dad was on the way home, and was expecting the house spotless. She got up, crumpled up the bag of chips and stuffed her sketchbook back into her backpack, which was picked up and tossed into her room.

Doodles get to stay on the paper. Lapis is still stuck in reality.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This absolutely amazing drawing was done by Dodogama! Now, it isn't exactly accurate to the canon design, but I wanted you all to get a feel for what the actual design of Peridot is. Either way, Dodogama did an AMAZING job with this drawing.
> 
> This chapter is rather short because we're going to start a new villain arc next chapter!
> 
> I know, the tension is absolutely electrifying.

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to Dodogama for their amazing help in developing this! Hopefully I'll be able to see it through to the end!


End file.
